


Kenshi | 剣士

by atelophobia



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Post-Recall, Protective Siblings, Shimada Brothers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-04-20 10:43:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14259240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atelophobia/pseuds/atelophobia
Summary: He swore he would never wield a sword again.





	Kenshi | 剣士

**Author's Note:**

> please be gentle! this hasn't been betaed at all and i've never posted anything before!

The air is bitterly cold, each labored breath Hanzo draws laced with the sharp scent of ozone. His dragons' first strike has failed to fell the towering Talon mech he’s been holding at bay for the past half-hour-- he’s too exhausted to muster a second, and now, out of arrows. Though his opponent is immune to the weariness that weighs his every movement, his defense has been relentless, and the colossus hasn't come through their conflict unscathed. One of the massive walker's four legs has been rendered useless by his efforts and is now being dragged, bits of armor shedding into the snow.

When it suddenly lurches towards him to renew its assault, its pilot presumably aware of his predicament, it stumbles and collides heavily with the side of the building he’s chosen as his perch. The brick wall crumbles beneath its weight. Heedless, it braces itself on the rubble and reaches up to grasp at him with a three-fingered hand, double-jointed wrist slamming into the awning. He staggers as the slick rooftop tarmac suddenly slants under his feet and promptly topples over the edge, through the cracked railing. 

Hanzo has fallen much further before, too many times to count. The sustained sensation (Equal parts weight and weightlessness) is almost familiar to him, as is the hasty repositioning required to land on the balls of his feet instead of his back. Despite his readiness, his attempt to recover is immediately rendered futile. When he hits the ground, he skids on the ice, his shin twisting backwards until he meets the frozen asphalt facefirst. Though he's well aware that he's wasting precious seconds, he can only lie there, winded, while his field of vision becomes a blurry chiaroscuro of black-and-blue.

Gauntleted fingers fall to the comm pack on his belt and find the massive crack in its casing. The buttons are unresponsive.

He might curse, if he could spare the breath.

Looking up just in time to see the walker's palm descending, he begins dragging himself away, stopping only when his back collides heavily with the wall behind him and he realizes that he’s trapped.

This is also far from the first time he's realized that he's very likely about to die, but it's the first time it's happened during his tenure as an unofficial agent of Overwatch-- the first time he's found himself in such a perilous position thanks to something other than the pursuit of a payout or the ghosts of his past.

Creaking and clicking, the quadruped mech looms closer.

Behind it, a streak of shiny white-and-green suddenly bounces over a wall at the end of the block, katana flashing wildly.

Genji.

Though he’s been half-blinded by the blood dripping into his eyes, his brother is still a sight to behold, zipping up and down, then side to side, scaling the slick vertical surfaces of the mech's limbs to hack at unarmored areas as easily as anyone else would walk across the ground. He flits from perch to perch like he can _fly_. 

_Like a sparrow_ , Hanzo thinks with a surge of incoherent fondness, delirium making his lips twitch jerkily.

Were he even halfway coherent, he would likely be furious that his brother has intervened, leapt to his defense and taken an inarguably unnecessary risk.

The snow is soaking into his gi, setting his skin on fire. Intent on the battle, he can feel the faint burn only distantly. His already-damaged opponent can't swivel its heavy head quickly enough to keep Genji in its line of sight, much less actually combat him. Targeting its bad leg brings the walker to a knee, and then he’s gone again, scarf fluttering in his wake as he scrambles up its back. Bracing his feet against the ridged carapace at the base of its neck, he raises his sword.

Sparks shoot into the dark sky. The behemoth convulses, all four legs buckling simultaneously, and hits the ground with a shuddering thud that sends up a shockwave forceful enough to crack the ice around them. Still only incapacitated, it promptly begins flailing its arms at its unseen assailant as it struggles to turn. One particularly wild swing catches the tiny figure mid-leap, swatting it out of the air. The green lights trimming his brother’s armor blink, flare bright, and die. 

“ _Genji!_ ”

His ribs might be broken. Frantic, Hanzo ignores the pain and throws himself onto all fours without an ounce of regard for dignity or the encroaching limitations of his battered body, scrabbling in a blind panic towards the spot where his brother is lying. Genji's visor is cracked, the vents in his shoulders releasing intermittent puffs of acrid smoke.

He's breathing.

The surge of relief that immediately washes over him is powerful enough to make him forget the throb of agony from his sides and left leg, just for a moment. The mech is advancing steadily towards both of them, dragging itself along with its arms. 

In the following instant, Hanzo Shimada comes to three realizations.

One: He had forgotten, until now, what fear felt like.

Two: There are a handful of stray arrows sticking out of the snow nearby, their carbon-fiber shafts gleaming dully, but Stormbow is nowhere in sight. 

Three: Genji’s sword is lying on the asphalt in front of him, the nicks in the blade gleaming green.

 _Never again_ , he’d said, when he had been a lord and his brother had been dead. Now, he’s no lord. He's only a man with a mouthful of blood, his brother behind him, and an enemy before them.

He owes a debt.

Swaying slightly, he picks up the katana and heaves himself to his feet to stand over Genji, lightning crackling faintly at his fingertips.


End file.
